HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Corbett has asked for records of interoffice emails containing pornography that were apparently exchanged among former employees of the state attorney general’s office, including two men who are now his top aides, saying he needs more information before determining if the men should keep their jobs.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office on Thursday identified eight ex-employees who sent or received the pornographic photos and videos by email. All of the men all worked under Corbett, a Republican, when he was the attorney general. Most of them went on to work for him as governor, and several still do.
Secretary of Administration Kelly Powell Logan asked Kane, a Democrat, for the contents of the emails and details about the email chain, including the dates, times and recipients. Logan also sought details about whether and when the email was forwarded, opened or deleted.
“The governor needs facts, all the facts, not just part of them, to make an informed decision,” said his press secretary, Jay Pagni.
Corbett has said he did not know about the pornographic email exchange at the time, but said Thursday that the material, as described by media outlets, was inappropriate and should not be tolerated in the workplace. The code of conduct in force at the time prohibited the exchange of pornographic email, according to Kane’s office.
A spokeswoman said Friday that Kane’s office had received Logan’s request, sent late Thursday, but had no immediate response. Kane’s office already has said that it cannot determine whether the men opened the emails they received.
Hundreds of pornographic emails sent from 2008 to 2012 were discovered during Kane’s review of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse prosecution, her office said.
Among the ex-employees identified by Kane’s office as recipients of the emails are two top state officials: Environmental Protection Secretary Christopher Abruzzo and State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan.
Noonan is in the midst of directing a massive manhunt for a survivalist accused of the Sept. 12 fatal ambush of a trooper at a state police barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains.
Noonan received 338 pornographic emails and sent none, and Abruzzo received 46 and sent eight, Kane’s office said. Noonan was the office’s chief of criminal investigations, and Abruzzo formerly supervised the attorney general’s drug strike force section.
Most of the men identified by Kane’s office have stayed silent.
One of them, Randy Feathers, a former agent who Corbett appointed to the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, said in a statement through the board that the images shown to reporters “were not a reflection of my professional behavior and I don’t condone this activity.”
Kane has defended her decision to release the names as being in the public’s best interest to understand how its public servants conduct business. She said in a statement being transparent on the matter is a good way to help stop the practice on state-owned equipment during official work hours.
